The controversy between the University of Illinois faculty and the university’s Ethics Office during the presidential campaign managed to spark reaction from Illinois legislators.

But Eastern President Bill Perry said faculty, and even students, should not fret about a repeat incident at Eastern’s campus.

On Sept. 18, the U of I’s Ethics Office sent out a memo to all faculty members about campaigning and promoting a presidential candidate. The letter was interpreted as the university forbidding any type of expression for a particular candidate.

“Free speech is free speech, and we are not going to abridge it,” Perry said about Eastern’s stance on the issue of faculty expression.

The reaction at U of I prompted U of I’s President B. Joseph White to issue a retraction, stating faculty were allowed to promote a candidate as long as they were not doing it on university time or representing an official stance of the institution.

Legislators also reacted. Two bills are currently in the General Assembly, which are intended to prevent a similar incident from happening again.

The bills, sponsored by Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Champaign, would clarify that a university could not prohibit a faculty member from displaying political paraphernalia, such as a campaign button or bumper sticker.

The pieces of legislation also bars the university from prohibiting a faculty member from attending a political rally as long as they are not on university time. The bills also clarify that faculty members have a right to communicate their views with any branch of government without needing prior review from university administrators.

Perry said the university has not had any serious issue with faculty expression. He said the university promotes freedom of speech.

“I’m a strong supporter of freedom of speech, and it’s a constitutional right,” he said. “Your constitutional rights stay with you when you are on campus.”

Jakobsson said she was surprised by the stipulations contained in the memo sent out to U of I faculty on Sept. 18. She said the two bills are designed to encompass all Illinois public universities and community colleges, not just U of I.

“It seemed to me our statues needed to be clarified,” Jakobsson said about what provoked her to sponsor the legislation.

As of Wednesday, the Senate Higher Education Committee approved both pieces of legislation. Prior, both bills passed the House unanimously.

Charles Delman, president of Eastern’s chapter of University Professionals of Illinois, the faculty union on campus, said the details of the memo seemed to be an outrageous infringement of people’s civil rights. He said the two bills clarify the situation.

Delman said anyone representing a university has a responsibility not to misrepresent the official stances of the university. However, faculty members have a right to express their personal opinion as long as they identify it as such, he said.

“I think people should speak out if they are in disagreement with university policy, and that speech should be protected,” Delman said. “It is as simple as that.”

Richard Wandling, chair of the political science department, said he is not concerned that opinions of faculty would be construed as representing the university as an institution. He said any quality university would have faculty with a diverse range of political ideologies, including liberal, conservative and even socialist.

“Open expression of this diversity is healthy in a college or university,” Wandling said. “Besides, anyone who understands how a university works knows that a particular faculty member’s political activism or political affiliations do not represent the official stance or position of the institution.”

He said he supports the legislation, even though the U of I administration retreated from the original conditions of the memo.

The bills are necessary to prevent further misunderstandings, Wandling said.

Many other department chairs contacted for the story did not respond to inquiries.

Nick Yelverton, legislative director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, a larger union group that encompasses UPI, said situations like the one at U of I are, unfortunately, frequent.

He said the U of I administration meant well, but he disagreed with how they went about stating their policy.

He said the IFT supports both bills because members of UPI have an obvious right to free speech.

“This legislation cleared up any ambiguity,” Yelverton said.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].